A new study found that parents' brains were protected against some of the impacts of aging, and this effect strengthened with each child

Parenting Is Hard—But It Also Might Keep Your Brain Young Experts explain why

• New research found that raising children may protect your brain from some effects of aging.
• Parents’ brains showed stronger functional connectivity—which typically decreases with age—and these effects strengthened with each child.
• While there are several possible explanations for the finding, experts said everyone’s brains could benefit from social support and challenging mental activities.

Parenthood is often blamed for causing wrinkles and grey hairs—and some research suggests it actually might. But a new study offers parents better news on the aging front: Raising children could help keep your brain in better shape.

The research, published in February in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that parents’ brains showed strengthened “functional connectivity” patterns in some regions instead of displaying the typical decrease seen with age. These networks strengthened with each child, and the effects appeared to be long-lasting.

“Functional connectivity is a measure that helps us understand how the brain communicates with itself,” Edwina R. Orchard, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale Child Study Center and co-author of the study, told Health. “These patterns change with the aging process, but in parenthood, we saw the opposite pattern, suggesting ‘younger’ patterns of brain function in parents with more children.” 

The findings make sense, Michelle DiBlasi, DO, chief of Inpatient Psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center, told Health. “Parenthood is a really critical time for both men and women where their brains need to adapt and change in order to manage new responsibilities, new social interactions, and the overall challenges that come with parenthood,” she said.

Analyzing Brain Scans

Some previous research has suggested that parenthood might help protect human and animal brains from age-related changes. But overall, “very little” is known about the long-term neural effects of being a parent, according to the authors of the new study.

To investigate further, researchers decided to examine the brains of parents and non-parents, paying particular attention to functional connectivity—or how regions communicate with each other.

They analyzed structural and resting state brain MRIs of more than 37,000 participants, the “largest population-based neuroimaging dataset to date.” Participants were included in the U.K. Biobank, a biomedical database of adults in the United Kingdom ages 40 to 69 years.

The study included 19,964 females and 17,607 males, all of whom completed information about their age, sex, number of children, education, and socioeconomic deprivation.

After analysis, researchers found that some areas of parents’ brains showed patterns of connectivity that ran counter to those typically associated with aging. The higher the number of children parented, the stronger the connectivity.

“The brains of parents had increased areas that are associated with social connectedness, empathy, and improved connection with the brain to movements in your body,” said DiBlasi, who was not involved in the study.

She explained that these areas are known indicators of good brain health that often deteriorate with age. “This is a sign that parenthood could possibly prevent brain decline,” DiBlasi said.

The study’s findings were consistent in females and males, suggesting the neuroprotective effects of parenting could be due to more than pregnancy.

“What is really reassuring is that these brain changes continued to last over time,” DiBlasi added.

The findings could help researchers better understand how to boost brain connectivity, even for people who aren’t parents.

“If what we’re picking up is a relationship between enhanced social interactions and social support that comes about through having increased numbers of children in your life, then that means that we could tap into those same processes even if individuals don’t have a social support network currently,” senior study author Avram Holmes, PhD, an associate professor of psychiatry at Rutgers University’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, said in a press release.

Why Might Parenthood Keep Your Brain Young?

Before parents get too excited about the findings, it’s important to note that the researchers don’t know for sure whether being a parent is what influenced the differences in brain connectivity between the two groups.

The study was also limited to biological parents from the U.K., so it doesn’t show how varying parenting roles and family structures might affect brain aging, noted Orchard.

More long-term, large-scale research with diverse participants is needed to understand the mechanisms behind how parenthood may protect brain function, the authors wrote.

However, Andrew Thaliath, MD, a neurologist with Norton Neuroscience Institute Memory Center, told Health that the differences in brain connectivity could come down to environmental and potentially social changes during parenthood.

For example, parents are exposed to more sensory stimuli and have to pick up on nonverbal cues when caring for children, which might play a protective role in brain aging that strengthens with each child, noted Thaliath, who was not involved in the study.

Just as children learn and grow throughout their childhood, the skills parents gain change yearly, added Orchard. “For parents with more than one child, they must provide sometimes simultaneous care to children with different temperaments, different needs, and across different developmental stages, which requires great behavioral flexibility,” said Orchard.

How to Protect Against Brain Aging

Even if you’re not a parent, there are still ways to protect your brain from the effects of aging, Thaliath stressed.

Taking care of yourself is important. Habits like regular exercise, a healthy diet with limited processed foods and sugar, and stress management can boost brain health. Getting adequate sleep—between 7 and 9 hours for most adults—helps your brain flush out toxins and repair itself.

You also want to find ways to regularly challenge your brain, such as participating in social activities, trying to solve a complex puzzle, or learning a new language.

Edited by Health with a background in health, science, and investigative reporting. Previously, she wrote full time about parenting issues for the app Parent Lab. Before that, she worked as a reporter for National Geographic covering wildlife crime and exploitation." tabindex="0" data-inline-tooltip="true"> Jani Hall Jani Hall Jani Hall is a news editor for Health with a background in health, science, and investigative reporting. Previously, she wrote full time about parenting issues for the app Parent Lab. Before that, she worked as a reporter for National Geographic covering wildlife crime and exploitation. learn more

This story originally appeared on: Health News - Author:Cathy Nelson